Monday, January 2, 2012

The New Year Begins

Day 2 of 2012. Baby girl is finally down for her morning nap and I have a chance to get this blog started.

I have several different ideas flying around in my head constantly - this will be a chance to get them all written down - and hopefully keep me on track.

On The Bookshelf: Left Behind series - started it way back when and never got the rest of the books. Now that I am an Amazon Prime Member - I bought all the ones I needed. I finished all 12 or 13 of the original series, and am now on the 3 "prequel-sequel" books. Since I just finished Glorious Appearing, I opted to read the last book - Kingdom Come before I read the prequels. I do have to say, the series is getting a bit old...I think they stretched it out too much. Glorious Appearing seemed to be a rehash of the Bible - not that I don't love it and it was interesting to see how many different books had verses relating to the end times, but there wasn't much story there. The authors don't have as much biblical reference in Kingdom Come, so I'm hoping for more of the characters.

On The Stove: Turtles - and no, I'm not talking about real ones. I've had a recent addiction to turtles - you know, the chocolate-covered pecan caramels. Millionaires are great, but $8 for about 12 of them is ridiculous. I found some cheater recipes that call for using pre-made caramels, but I'd like to do something more "real" than that. So I found a caramel recipe http://candy.about.com/od/caramelrecipes/r/soft_caramels.htm that I want to try out. Unfortunately, my last candy thermometer was glass and it shattered. Ugh. So on to Amazon to find one.

In The Garden: Heirloom Tomatoes - In prior years we have stuck with hybrids - like Celebrity. They produce and the flavor is nice, but somewhere I heard about heirloom tomatoes. Thought I'd give them a try. So last year I purchased a Cherokee Purple plant. And we fell in love. Unfortunately, so did the birds. The drought caused massive bird depredation of our garden - at the last count, I lost a total of over 60 tomatoes to the birds. We did get 3 tomatoes off our Cherokee Purple before it got so hot that all our vines stopped putting on. About October, when things finally started cooling down and the vines were full again, it froze. Ugh. So it is about time to start my seedlings again and I'm trying to figure out what to plant this year. Cherokee Purple again, definitely. And tomatillos - want to make my own green sauce this year. Gotta make my mind up soon...

In The Field: Deer - or lack of THANK GOODNESS! Deer love wheat. It's the only green thing growing right now, and I can't say I blame them. However, when I look out the window and see 30+ of them grazing down my profit, it just really gets to me. Enter stage left: Robbie & friends. We met Robbie a few years ago when my father-in-law's cousin came to hunt. Well, Robbie loves to hunt - and I mean hunt! We are overrun with Axis deer (the best-tasting meat!) and he cleans house for us. Over the last year or two, he's probably taken over 200 deer. He has been cleaning and processing them and taking them back to his hometown where he donates the meat to needy families. This year he found a processor that will take up to 600 of them, he will process them, then give the meat to the Food Bank. Can't think of a better way to utilize the awesome meat and help us keep their numbers in check. Robbie was here over the holidays. Now I look out the window and see maybe 1 or 2. My bank account is content.

On The Craft Table: Junk Mail - HA! I went into crafting and sewing overdrive this past Christmas and burned out, I think. Or maybe I just haven't been inspired. I want to make baby girl a cute outfit for Valentine's Day, but that will require a trip to Hobby Lobby and who knows when that will happen. I usually find inspiration from the other blogs I follow, but everyone has been doing the same thing I have - spending time with family and friends. I need to check my Pinterest boards - maybe there's something on there that will inspire me...

Spring Reading Thing 2012

About Me

A few years ago, I was living in a small town in NE Texas, working in Dallas in the corporate world. I was sick of dating men who were more high-maintenance than I am. I'm a country girl at heart, having grown up on small acreage and spending all my vacations at our family ranch in the Texas Hill Country. After a failed attempt at eHarmony, a friend suggested I try online dating again. I found FarmersOnly.com - hey - it was only $15 for 3 months...I met my love there. He's a full-time farmer/rancher. 4 months after meeting online and 3 months after meeting in person, we were engaged, married 6 weeks later. I traded corporate life for farm wife. Now, married 3 years and mom to a darling baby girl. How life can change!